Monday, August 7, 2017

One Flew Over the John Carpenter Nest, or Thoughts on The Ward

I
wanted to call this post John Carpenter Interrupted, or Thoughts on The Ward,
but as The Ward (2010) was basically his last movie before retirement, I didn’t
want to get anybody’s hopes up. Ghost
of Mars (2001) is technically the last film he wrote and directed, The Ward was
written by Shawn and Michael Rassmussen.
Part psychological thriller, part ghost story, part hospital conspiracy
story makes for a fragmented, confusing and ultimately unsatisfying plot set in
a 1960’s mental hospital for attractive young girls.

Amber
Heard is Kristen, a runaway pyromaniac with a dark past; in her 60’s wardrobe
and hair is reminiscent of a young Tippi Hedren. She’s the leader of a group of girls in a psych ward
who probably aren’t really crazy because this is the 60’s and they were horrible
at treating mental illness back then (at least in the movies).

Because
this is a John Carpenter film the audience is treated to long, low tracking
scenes through ominous empty halls, perfectly symmetrical frames, overt
Hitchcock references, (there’s even a shower scene) and Jared Harris as Dr.
Stringer, acting like an updated, modern Donald Pleasance. However, with the exception of
Halloween (1978) and The Fog (1980), any supernatural element in a John
Carpenter movie has had a science fiction or a Lovecraftian explanation, which
of course is missing from The Ward as the director didn’t write it. It’s a modern horror movie, with a
modern explanation, and I suppose if anyone other than John Carpenter had been
associated with it I would have enjoyed it more.

Watch
out for the push button landline on Dr. Stringer’s desk; it should have been a
rotary dial in 1966. Push button
phones weren’t introduced until the 70’s.
It’s the little details that take you out of the movie.